How are data brokers fueling social engineering attacks?

Online data brokers may seem like a consumer privacy issue –but as our guest explains on this episode of Let's SOC About It, they’re a growing business risk.

Paul Mander, General Manager of Optery, joins us to expose the scale of the online data broker ecosystem and how it fuels targeted cyberattacks like phishing, smishing, and impersonation. The line between personal and business identity is blurrier than ever – and it’s putting organizations at risk.

In this episode, you'll learn about:
🕵️‍♂️ How data brokers harvest and resell your employees’ personal data
📲 Why that information is fueling phishing and smishing attacks
🧠 The impact of AI on the sophistication and scale of social engineering
🛡️ How to proactively protect your people – and reduce alerts in the SOC


Relevant Links:
Follow Paul on LinkedIn: ⁠linkedin.com/in/paulmander⁠
Learn more about Optery: ⁠http://optery.com/getting-started-bus...

Timestamps:
00:00 - Introduction and why this risk is so overlooked
01:26 - What are online data brokers, and what info do they collect?
06:02 - Real-world use cases: social engineering, ransomware, and physical threats
14:28 - How AI is supercharging social engineering attacks
18:16 - Playing offense: how SOC teams can shrink the attack surface
21:13 - Why removing employee data protects both business and personal security